Among fictional characters, Vito Corleone has always been an inspiring character for me. How in his youth he used to help everyone he could and on this basis, he formed strong relationships with other people. Relations that led him toward becoming a very powerful man when he got old. Regardless of all the power and influence, the give and take relationship between he and his acquaintances was very fascinating to me.
The story changed my PoV to the situations when someone asks me for a favor. After some time, I started to help my friends and acquaintances whenever they needed me to do so, even if they didn’t explicitly asked me. It was unbelievable how this behavior affected our relationships. After doing a favor for them, most of them started to be kinder than before to me and sometimes even trying to compensate with other favors.
One interesting thing that I noticed was that it’s not the default behavior of people to actively try to help other people, at least between the people I know and interact with on a dialy basis. When they see you have encountered a problem, most of them are like “Okay, not a big deal. It’s not my duty to help you. You can overcome it yourself”. But I joined a Telegram group, consisting of Iranian people living in Saarland. I sent a message there, complaining about the status of my accommodation and how disappointing it is. Surprisingly, a lot of people tried helping me and giving me some advice on how to look for accommodation.
The interesting thing is about this difference between Iranian people living in Iran and outside of Iran. They look more united and more supportive. Most possibly, it’s because they are a minority in Germany and understand that they have to support each other in order to be supported when they encounter a problem themselves. It’s interesting how the behavior of the people evolve when their environment changes.
Anyway, I’m thankful to them and hope I can compensate their favors after my life becomes more stable in there.